Adding iron sights to new rifle

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and I hope to get a answer to my delima. I thought this might be the perfect place to get a sound answer....my question is, I am looking for a rifle for a friend who fishes up in Alaska. He needs something large enough to defend himself from some of the larger bears up there and, he does not want a scope on a rifle...he mainly wants a new rifle in 338Magnum. The problem here is, the rifles in this caliber are mainly bored and taped for scope mounting. He is pretty set on a Ruger. No iron sights from the factory.

Can he purchase a new 338 magnum and have open / iron sights added to the rifle by a gunsmith with-out having the integreity of the metal of the barrel compromised? Will adding iron sights to a new rifle like this damage or alter anything? such as over time will the barrel be damaged? Or would this not matter at all? I talked to a gun dealer and , he said that drilling or anything like this will in fact damge and or alter the performance or integrety of the metal. I spoke to Ruger and they say they do not do this type of work at their factory. This is the kicker, will the adding of the iron sights mess with any part of the rifle adversly?

Yes, you could do as the other poster said, get a rifle with the sites on it, thats an easy fix! Also you can get a "Smith" to order and install a set of sites no real problem, if he can't do that, he has no place doing scope installations!

I wholeheartedly agree with the poster who reccomended a ruger m77 alaskan in .375 ruger. It has a synthetic stock-great for alaskan weather,short barrel-makes for a very quick handling rifle-especially in brush,more than ample knockdown power-when being charged-NO gun seems big enough! I cannot imagine a rifle better for that purpose unless browning comes out with bar in that caliber. Another idea for kissing range is the puma lever action in .454 casull. Hardcast bullets in .454 is perfect for hunting or stopping a bear. Also it's a fast reloading easy carrying carbine altho you ain't going to have much time for reloading.

..i was thinking Marlin 45-70 also,myself i realy like Marlins new Rifles
better than Ruger..

im going to have to take another look at a Marlin now
now as for AK fishing and hunting i do this twice a year 1 trip to hunt and 1 to fish both times i go up with a good shoty (12 or 10) and a big bour revolver
when i am fishing bear are not really a problem the bears sit on the shore and when you hook a fish they just grab your line and eat the fish you cant shoot them for that and they do have to be acting really aggressive and getting close to you b4 you can shoot them as of yet the bears have not been the problem

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